(TACOMA, WA.) – It is not uncommon in America to see a drug dealer sentenced to life in prison or a long stretch of say 20 to 25 years. But for taking the life of a small child?

In Pierce County, the law placed a value on such a life this week. It is just over eight years in prison.

Drug dealer: life behind bars. Child killer: about eight years.

And here’s the kicker: Superior Court Judge Kitty-Ann van Doorninck said Tuesday - right before she sentenced a woman, a Pierce County babysitter for the death of the little Lakewood boy – that “nothing is more precious or more fragile than a young child.”

Really? The drug dealer is locked away forever. The 2-year old boy is dead forever. But the babysitter?

Atalani Tili, 31, who pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter for the death of Keanu Perpetua-Prescott in February of last year as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, she gets just 8 years, 6 months in prison and that was a high-end sentence for that crime and both the defense and prosecution recommended it, according to a report by The News Tribune of Tacoma.

Leave you with the feeling that something is just not right with this picture?

According to the newspaper report, Tili wrote in her guilty plea that the 2-year-old - a child of a family friend - bit her hand while she was caring for him and “her reaction” caused the boy to “hit his head on a dresser.”

She did not take the child to a hospital. The next day, Feb. 14 she calls 911. The little boy dies of his injuries ten days later. Keanu is survived by his parents and seven siblings.

American justice?

Here's something to ponder. A 24-year old woman, described as a “drug mule” from Canada who tried to smuggle a large load of cocaine into Sydney, Australia aboard a crusie ship was just sentenced Wednesday in Australia to eight years in prison.

Young Melina Roberge never killed a child or anyone else. The judge said she just got “seduced” by the glamorous lifestyle she could afford by smuggling coke.